


Works Outing

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 08:59:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've faced all manner of cosmic threats. How will they handle a day off?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Works Outing

"Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside," Lead sang, at a volume loud enough to turn heads across the beach and rattle the windows in the pier pavilion. 

Steel, a few paces behind him, favoured him with a glower. While attracting the attention of humans could certainly be a useful tool at times, this wasn't one of those times. Even before Lead had started singing, he'd felt uncomfortably conspicuous; it seemed that among humans, a suit and tie were not a common choice of clothes in a coastal resort on a hot summer's day. 

"Isn't this splendid?" Sapphire remarked. Theoretically, she shouldn't have been blending in any better than he was; her Edwardian bathing dress — pale blue, of course — was at least a hundred years out of date. But it still seemed to be drawing less attention than his own understated suit. "Seeing humans enjoying themselves, without a care in the world." 

"If they knew what we knew, they'd care." 

Her fingers brushed his arm. "And that's how we know we've been successful, isn't it? They'll never know how close they came to disaster." 

_What's the matter?_ Lead's thoughts swam into theirs, while to outward ears his song continued unabated. _Steel grumbling about the assignment again?_

_This isn't an assignment,_ Steel thought back at him. _There's nothing for us to do here._

"I seem to remember somebody saying that was how matters ought to be arranged," Sapphire said. "Try to prevent breaches rather than wait until they've opened." 

"I said that ought to be done by a specialist. Someone like Argon. And anyway, that's beside the point. We're not here to prevent a breach. We're here to..." 

"Yes?" 

"Relax." Steel said the word as if holding it between tongs, lest it should contaminate him. "A concept intrinsically meaningless when applied to us." 

"The same applies to the concept of clothing," Sapphire replied. "You seem to have grasped that all right." 

_Or at least the basics of it,_ a new and very familiar mental voice added. 

Steel, showing no outward reaction, turned to his right. Parked a little way away on the promenade was an ice cream van. A familiar, red-headed figure was concluding what appeared to be a complicated transaction with the proprietor. 

_Silver!_ Sapphire silently called. 

_Be with you in a minute. I do wonder about these humans, sometimes. The amount of time and trouble they put into keeping track of their coinage. There are so many more interesting things you can do with cupro-nickel than stamp it flat and engrave little pictures on it._

_Do I have to explain money to you again?_

_I understand it perfectly. I just find all the wrangling over it terribly tedious._

Steel gave the seafront another suspicious glare, almost wishing that there was some impending danger. Some rough edge that could fray at the fabric of time, some dangerous juxtaposition of old and new. But there was nothing. In other circumstances, the centuries-old public house tucked between two amusement arcades could have allowed any one of half-a-dozen abominations access to the world. But here and now, it was undeniably inert, like a battery completely drained of acid. 

"Have you any idea what he might do with a handful of loose change?" he asked. "The humans in these parts have a saying about making work for idle hands." 

"Then perhaps we should find some for yours," Sapphire said. 

_You ever built a sandcastle?_ , Lead suggested. _It'd do you good._

Steel stood his ground. "Even granting your assumption that a 'day off' is something in any way meaningful or useful to me... why did you all insist that I had to spend it with you?" 

"Here." Silver appeared immediately in front of Steel, his hands full of ice cream cones. "Hold these, would you?" He pushed the cones into Steel's unwilling hands. "Oh, and would you mind lowering your body temperature by about twenty-five degrees? Just enough to stop them melting."


End file.
